Plant Name
Scientific Name: Agave chrysantha
Common Names: Goldenflower Century Plant, Golden-flowered Agave
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial, Evergreen
Growth Habit: Shrub, Subshrub, Herb/Forb, Unusual Shrub
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Upland (mountain foothills and canyons)
Flower Color: Brilliant golden yellow
Flowering Season: Summer (mainly in June)
Height: Leaf rosette to 3 feet (91 cm) tall, flower stalk to 20 feet (6 m) tall
Description: The showy flowers are in dense clusters atop tall, fleshy flower stalks. The flowers and flower buds are a brilliant golden yellow color with no purplish or reddish tinge. The flowers attract numerous insects. The plant dies after flowering and setting seed. The leaves are in a basal rosette and are stiff, green, linear, and taper to a pointed tip. The leaves have a stout, sharp spine at the tip and sharp spines along the leaf margins. Stabs from Agave leaves can be quite painful and bloody.
The similar Parry's Agave (Agave parryi) has red-tinged or purple-tinged flower buds.
Special Characteristics
Legal Status – Protected Native Plant (Salvage Restricted)
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Liliopsida – Monocotyledons
Subclass: Liliidae
Order: Liliales
Family: Agavaceae – Century-plant family
Genus: Agave L. – agave
Species: Agave chrysantha Peebles – goldenflower century plant
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